I hate what's happening to nursing...

lifelearningrn, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

The whole 'customer service' thing bothers me to a degree. I do believe a nurse should strive to give the best care possible but I think it crosses the line when they want you reading from a script and asking for a '10 star' rating. I'm not putting my blood, sweat, tears and money into a BSN degree to rattle off scripts cheesier than the 'Hi! Welcome to McDonalds, would you like to try our hot chocolate today?" If I wanted to work in that capacity, I'd have chosen to forgo getting my degree and applied to a retail or food related job.. or would be majoring in Hotel and Restaurant Management.

If nurses don't start standing up for themselves and refusing to be treated like this, it's only going to get worse.

Chiggysmom · Mar 16, 2011

Sadly, this is how I feel and so many of the nurses I work with as well. What's really sad, is watching the brand spanking new nurses come to the reality of the situation. They're so excited when they pass their boards and become "real nurses" and then you just watch and observe and in about a year's time, they too are already burned out and disallusioned. I talked my daughter out of a nursing career, she had all the classes done and was even accepted at a nursing school. I think she had the advantage of knowing someone who could teach her the real reality of what nursing is actually like instead of some fantasy that many people have about what nursing is going to be like (including myself who had no idea at all what it was going to be like). She was able to avoid a lot of heart break and disallusionment. They don't teach any of this stuff in nursing school but just keep telling you every day "you're going to be a professional". HA-ha! They don't tell you, you'll have all the expectations of a professional and almost none of the respect or compensation befitting a professional! Daughter became a dental hygienist and I think she's very grateful that she didn't become a nurse

It took me all these years to finally conclude, "Some things in life are just NOT worth the money." Anyone who thinks they are getting into nursing JUST to simply help people or thinks it's a calling is sadly mistaken. The nobility of our profession has changed. Those days are gone. I feel that I work in a factory and pts are on the assembly line. Fix em up and send them back out only take a fresh new batch with a fresh set of issues. The cycle continues. Just give me my 3 twelve hour shifts and let me go home and forget what I do for a living. I think nursing school forgot to teach me about customer service. Or maybe I just skipped that class when nursing became all about customer service. (Oh yea don't forget the VIP's too!) Sorry, you put up with being yelled at and if you stand up for yourself you are at risk for getting written up or possibly losing your job no matter how many years of service have put in at your institution.
PS: Remember this, no matter what, "The customer is always right!" Wink wink...

OldNurseEducator · Mar 16, 2011

Makes you think so doesn't it ? I don't think the US public gets it with hospitals being places for sick people. I know when I was growing up and I am not young anymore by any means but this was in 70s and 80s . Children under 12 couldn't visit anyone and in ICU forget about it and there it was 15 minutes each hour or two hours for close family even then. There were also visiting hours. I don't understand why it was changed. Hospitals are not the mall or Walmart for sure.
You really don't understand why this has changed? REALLY?? Hospitals cater to the paying customer. Patients and their families are the customers!!! Screw the "infection control"!! It doesn't take much to see that all these new fancy diggs hospitals and clinics have are for the "CUSTOMERS". It's all about money, Sweetie!

Chiggysmom · Mar 16, 2011

I agree. Healthcare is quickly becoming all about the money. Patient care does not even rank in the top five!!

Yeh, we were just talking about this at work yesterday. The hospitals and administrators "mouth" patient care and all that but we don't see them demostrating that's their priority. When we work long hours, short staffed so often, it's difficult to convince us that the patients are their priority. We just don't see it!

martymoose, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

OH yes: You hit the nail on the head!
I feel so much like I am giving the " Thank you for shopping Wal-Mart" pattern good bye to my patients,when we are saying "Hope you felt you had EXCELLENT care, upon discharge. CEOs have a problem with reality vs. appearance. Do they really mean they want excellent care provided or they want the appearance of excellent care?. If you want real excellent care then give us the excellent staffing, excellent tools and excellent initiatives. Not little bells and whistle like we are in romper room, but big peoples rewards like $$$$.

actually where i am they DO give out thank you cards saying pretty much that , and thank you for choosing so and so hospital:uhoh3:

and based on the staffing in some area and the higher acuities- that they wantt the appearance of excellent care:crying2:

martymoose, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

oh, and I don't think ( and I believe I speak for the majority of burn outs here:idea:) that everyone else isn't getting it- I WANT to provide good care- I WANT to do the best for every pt in my care-I want to treat pt families well. It's just with all this other extraneous stuff and short staffing and increased acuity that we CAN"T provide these things effectively. We all know this. The uppers don't care why- just DO!! just do the "Disney land thing" and make sure you document it. To the prev. poster who said they are being monitored for their room check times- what happens when thereis a code- tell them wait- Ihave to go make rounds? this is REDICULOUS(sorry if spelled wrong)

I feel bad because I WANT to do my best- and my best is never good enough- and alot of times out of my control.

Psychtrish39, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

You really don't understand why this has changed? REALLY?? Hospitals cater to the paying customer. Patients and their families are the customers!!! Screw the "infection control"!! It doesn't take much to see that all these new fancy diggs hospitals and clinics have are for the "CUSTOMERS". It's all about money, Sweetie!
OldNurseEducator,
Oh yes, I sure know that and I know a prior poster said we shouldn't think work is fun well no work is work and what my patients dish out I can deal with but what I can't deal with or am having a hard time dealing with is the fact that some person with a Masters in Healthcare Management telling me how to keep my patients happy. Give them good care and you will not have to have these surveys done. Don't give a nurse so many patients to care for its impossible and I know this most likely will never happen in the real world. People complain to me all the time that care in a hospital is bad and I say well don't blame the nurses and then I explain to them how corporations run healthcare. The average health care consumer in America has no idea . Maybe that is where nurses should start all of us telling the public somehow how it really is.

cabalic · Mar 16, 2011

hi nyteshade,

My proposal to you is to consider applying in a different hospital that can meet your needs. You are an experienced nurse with a lot to offer to our patients, for some reason the boss does not see vital ways to foster the team in your units. Nursing profession does not stop where you are, the door is open for opportunities to grow and care for others. We are needed and you have a place, move on.

CC

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2011

That was pretty mild as far as freakouts go ---- :) but I can really relate to what you're feeling. Things are set up nowadays almost to suck people farther down the drain let alone help people climb out . . . wages and benefits in my state have stagnated or dropped, leading to a huge debt burden if you have a catastrophic medical issue in the family which leads to poor credit rating leads to what you went through. None of it has a thing to do with how good a nurse you are. I know I'm a good nurse. I've participated in a few threads where I suggested we would all be better off dropping the divides and let anyone with the word "nurse" on their license join the same group and make it about numbers and solidarity. The focus is still squarely on an agenda formulated years ago, and rather than re-think that in light of the situation we are presently in a general attitude of digging in heels has been the response. It's sad to me to see what's happened over the years.

It is so sad where we have ended up. 25 years ago you were promoted on you integrity,honesty and how good of a nurse you were. Stellar at your profession. Now, however........you graduate school, work one night shift, have someone puke in your pocket and pee down your leg and go back to school to get your master's degree get hired as my boss and try to tell me how to do bedside nursing by evidence based practice! My question is.....when did they practice to have enough evidence to know how to do it !? I am weary of being criticized because of my lack of "ambition" to further my education and gain no respect for my 32 years as a Registered Nurse. I have a 12 and 13 year old that need college in a very few years! I have been afraid we were going to over educate ourselves away from the bedside and be replaced with cheaper "less educated" personel as LPN's, aides and techs. I am afraid my prophecy my be comming true.

Now I am afraid that if I am ever able to return to nursing.......nursing won't want me. I have suffered a catasrophic illness......I had disability through my employer. (Recently I have recieved SSDI) I trusted them to help me "get through this..... :mad: They told me all would be well and they were behind me........they were behind me all right..... when they kicked my butt out the door for "chronic attendence" issues that lead to "poor performance". I trusted them..... Now without disability insurance, unemployment ran out. My illness escalated the bills mounted.....things did not get paid. 32 years of great credit gone.........everything I have done......All I have saved..........gone:crying2:. Wiped from my history

I am 50 (ish), bad credit, no savings, unable to work................The only thing I have ever done for a job is be a nurse......it's the only thing I do well...all I ever wanted to be:o I have bedside nursed for 32 years with only 2 6 month breaks........my children.

Now I am afraid I will never work again:crying2: I feel like the profession I have devoted my life to abandonded me when I needed it most...........

It makes me very sad.........

OldNurseEducator · Mar 16, 2011

OldNurseEducator,
Oh yes, I sure know that and I know a prior poster said we shouldn't think work is fun well no work is work and what my patients dish out I can deal with but what I can't deal with or am having a hard time dealing with is the fact that some person with a Masters in Healthcare Management telling me how to keep my patients happy. Give them good care and you will not have to have these surveys done. Don't give a nurse so many patients to care for its impossible and I know this most likely will never happen in the real world. People complain to me all the time that care in a hospital is bad and I say well don't blame the nurses and then I explain to them how corporations run healthcare. The average health care consumer in America has no idea . Maybe that is where nurses should start all of us telling the public somehow how it really is.
Please don't take a tone with me...I'm with you! But nothing you can say or do will change the fact that your hospital administrators and boards are catering to the customer. It's all about who has the biggest and the best! It's not about care of people. And if you think I'm not correct, do some investigating yourself. Nursing will never command the same respect it once did (I have been a RN since 1970 something...) because the patients all have learned to demand "spa like" atmospheres and "service when demanded". And you're correct when you say, "The average health care consumer in America has no idea. Maybe that is where nurses should start all of us telling the public somehow how it really is." If and when all people wake up and smell the coffee will nursing improve. Just sayin'.

ccampbell1012 · Mar 16, 2011

My sentiments exactly. Nursing is a second career for me and I was so thankful for an opportunity to go into a profession that I wanted to do for many years and wanted to help people. Now, having only been out of nursing school for almost 2 years, I am very frustrated and wonder if making the move really was worth it all. I wanted to go into nursing so badly that I was willing to take a pay cut and have an incredibly supportive husband that has been very encouraging. Along with the poster, I find that we have been giving scripts to use on a daily basis, almost like I am a robot. I really wish the high-level management could walk in our shoes for at least a few hours. I doubt they would make it a whole 12 hours. Anyway, it is frustrating to say the least that something you wanted to do for so long turned out to be a little different than what I thought. One thing remains the same, I love the patients and that has never changed.

sophie_bob_kids · Mar 16, 2011

Remember the good ol' days when nurses were respected, and in some cases even feared if you didn't follow instructions?!? It's laughable now. Now you have to quietly remain calm while your patient (and their family members) berate you. All managment cares about now and days, is getting 10's on the surveys.